a heart made of chocolate sauce and other awesome things that have been happening.

This past week has been somewhat crazy at work because we've had a big appellate brief due and a trial going on, so I'm sorry if I haven't been able to get back to people who've tried calling/texting. It's called exhaustion and it's not very conducive to being social, haha. But I'm grateful to myself for getting in the habit early on to exercise because I think that's what saved me this week. (That and the delicious food to be mentioned later. It's all about balance.) It really helped to decompress every day by running on the treadmill or lifting weights. My stress level's definitely been better for it. I asked my runner friend Natalie what the best workout routine is and she told me to do something every day. So far I've been able to keep to that, and, ten pounds less, I think my tummy is better off too.

I'm also glad that I finally got the chance to hang out with Derek for a little bit this week. He downloaded this alien astronaut show from Discovery Channel that he had been telling me about (connects the pyramids in Egypt to the Mayan ones in Mexico, etc, so awesome), so we watched that and then worked out together. He's so fun and cute! I love having a little brother that I can talk to and who is one of my best friends. It's refreshing to see someone his age that has his crap together and knows what he's doing in life and is intelligent and down to earth. Sorry, ladies, he already has a cute girlfriend named Abby! Have I mentioned I'm going to miss him when he leaves on his mission? Juste un peu, mais c'est tout.

In other news, I have the most darling parents known to man and they are so nice to take me out to lunch this week. (I have scant monies at the moment.) Mom, the savvy and classy business woman that she is, has been nominated as one of Utah Business magazine's 30 Women to Watch this year and I hope she makes it to the final cut! Having been around her career for my entire 23-ish years, I know she deserves it. On Thursday, she and I went to Noodles & Co. and then to Lunaberry for a crepe. I got a dark chocolate crepe with strawberries and almonds and it was delicious. We both wanted to take naps in the sun afterward, maybe with golden retriever puppies crawling on us or something, but we had to go back to work. Here is my crepe--it had a chocolate sauce heart so of course I had to take a picture of it:



Nice, huh? So on Friday I got to see my little dad and go to lunch with him. We went to Pagoda for sushi and it was amaze! We got gyoza, wontons, vegas roll, spider roll (with extra black widows), miso, and strawberry mochi with ice cream. I definitely want to go back soon. They have this awesome party room called the Dragon Room that fits about 10 people in its own awesomely decorated area of the restaurant.

Yeah, we have fun like that.

what if all my wildest dreams came true?

i got an email from Anthropologie saying, "What if Anthropologie did weddings?" and this link.

happyhappyhappy

sometimes your jaw drops when the goodness of life brings something utterly fabulous your way.

this is one of those moments.

and one more thing.

i just needed to mention this because i keep thinking about it. last week i saw tron. so many things stuck with me afterward--it's one of those movies that i like for the elements even if the overall storyline is kinda lacking. number element is the music (loved it), of course, but the second aspect that stuck out to me the most was kevin flynn's house. the design was just so perfect for the movie, to me a mix of brocade home and west elm and even a little copenhagen west--absolutely loved it.

the chains are at it in the attic again.

this past week was pretty boring and normal. except for tuesday, that is! tuesday night clarence, cara and i went to provo because clarence wanted to play open mic night at velour. needless to say he was nervous, and i was nervous for him. it's one of those things where i know how good he is and i want everyone else listening to know that too. but luckily clarence is a better performer than i ever was (cough, two or three of my botched piano recitals come to mind, lol) and he pulled it off amazingly. he was the ninth person to play out of about fifteen, and he was definitely in the top two. and get this: as we were leaving, the owner of the venue stopped clarence for his contact info and told him he wanted clarence to come back and play! yay. so it was awesome and cub and i were both really excited for him, not only that he played well but that it resulted in something he wanted, which is to pursue his music career. on a random side note, when we were sitting in jetta before doors opened, two (homeless?) guys walked by pushing a shopping cart, and one of them, rather large, had half his behind area hanging out of his pants--sans underwear. i saw it first since i was in the back and told cara not to look. i said, clarence look but cara don't look. so of course they both look and it's one those things that after it's happened you can't believe what you just saw. and then you laugh for about three years after at random moments when you remember it. so all in all an adventurous night, and a good one, despite having to be back in provo.